


A New Hope

by LittleTurtle95



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Heavy Angst, Major Character Undeath, Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker Lives, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Sibling Bonding, Star Wars References, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Tony Stark Dies, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23913331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleTurtle95/pseuds/LittleTurtle95
Summary: Two times Tony Stark watches Star Wars with one of his kids and the one time his kids watch Star Wars without him.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	A New Hope

**Author's Note:**

> I cried writing this and if I suffer you have to suffer, I don't make the rules.
> 
> If you speak Italian, there's the Italian version of this fic on wattpad, same title, same profile name.
> 
> TW: panic attacks (not graphic, only mentioned)

_01/07/2017_

_Avengers Compound_

_9.45 A.M._

Happy dropped him in front of the entrance and went to park the car in one of the many garages of the Compound. There was no need to pass the badge he was keeping in his wallet – his leather wallet Tony gave him for his last birthday – because FRIDAY noticed him the second he stepped out of the car with the security cameras and the sliding doors opened silently as he approached the building. It was a Saturday morning and there was nobody of the staff in sight.

“Good morning, Mr. Parker. Mr. Stark is waiting for you on the third floor. He has been already alerted of your presence when you entered the building a few seconds ago.”

“Oh, hum, great. Thank you,” he said, knowing he was never going to get used to the AI. He didn’t know how to interact properly with it, he usually treated it like a human being saying things like _please, thank you_ and _sorry,_ and then he felt hopelessly dumb about it. 

He found the elevator without much struggle, and it brought him to the third floor with no need to push any of the buttons. As soon as the door opened, he saw a man waiting for him, sipping calmly form an Ironman mug Peter was certain he saw on a _Primark_ shelf the week before. He was leaning on the fridge, glancing at him with a side look and an half smile on his lips. 

Tony Stark was always exhausted when they met on the weekend, the week of intense work and pressure visibly weighting his shoulders, but he always tried to hide it behind his smug face and smirks every time Peter showed up. 

This time, though, he looked like he was having more trouble than usual at looking functional and okay. 

“Heya, Mr. Stark! How was your week?” he asked, sneaking out of the elevator and grabbing a donut from the kitchen counter. 

“Hey _piccolo_ , always nice to see you! Did you bring your suit?” he said, blatantly ignoring the question.

“Yessir,” Peter said, shrugging his shoulders and turning a bit on the side to show his backpack. “This week it’s almost untouched, only a little strap on the chest.”

After the Vulture accident, as they called it, the two usually saw each other on Saturdays, because Tony wanted to check up on the suit and the kid himself, to keep an eye on him and make sure everything was perfect for another week of patrolling. Most of the times there was nothing to fix, some other times not much, and only once the damage has been bad. But this was a whole other story.

“I really don’t get how you manage to rip a million dollar suit stopping bike thieves and rescuing kitties stuck on trees, buddy. It really amazes me,” Tony said, and Peter cleared his throat uncomfortably, trying to fight a blush. 

He had engaged a really bad fight with a dude called Sandman that week, and had no intentions of telling Tony, who would one hundred percent ask him to stop and keep on with his _friendly neighborhood_ business. 

“I’m sorry sir,” he whispered, avoiding the subject clumsily, and oh was he bad at lying. He frowned, waiting for a call out on his vague answer. Tony was too smart for his awkward deflections. 

Like he often did, Tony Stark surprised him. “Don’t you worry, spiderling. We’re superheroes, aren’t we?” he asked, and behind his dismissive looks Peter saw him more tired than he’s ever seen him, more than the time when they got back from Berlin. “If we don’t have our hands dirty are we even doing our job? Come on, let’s go!” he said, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him closer, leading to the lab like he always did.

“Mr. Stark are you su-”

“What would you rather have for lunch? Indian? Greek? I’d fancy some Indian right now,” he murmured. 

Peter bit his lower lip in concern. He still wasn’t used to all this confidence, the one and only Tony Stark asking him what he wanted to eat for lunch, it was a literal dream come true and he still looked at Tony in awe and sometimes he even got caught at it like the dumb teen he was – Tony never made fun of him for it, he looked rather proud and that made Peter feel things – but today the man wasn’t the golden hero he was used to see, and he wasn’t even the caring man he was learning to know, neither he was the stressed billionaire with a company to run that found himself in need of a gallon of caffeine to function on Saturday morning trying not to collapse on the couch.

Today he was just off. Distracted. Maybe it wasn’t the right day, maybe he just didn’t want to see him every week, maybe he was just bored.

“Indian is great. Listen, sir-”

“FRIDAY, call _Bombayss_ and ask for a tandoori chicken, a box of samosa, some naan and a biryani special, please.”

“Is everything okay?” he pushed, even if he knew he wasn’t in the position to do so. “If you’re not in the mood I can come back some other day,” he said fast, not to let the man interrupt him mid sentence again. Tony froze and looked at him for a moment.

 _That’s it_ , thought Peter, _I fucked up. That’s how I learn to mind my own business._

“Does this have something to do with your powers or am I suddenly less able to hide how I’m feeling all of a sudden?” Tony asked, tilting his head on the side, and the openness of the question and the sincerity of the words made Peter’s heart clench.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t want to be intrusive. It’s just-”

“ _Ragazzo mio, sul serio_ , if you keep calling me sir I swear I’m starting to call you Mr. Parker. Really.”

Peter blinked and let the words sink in, then furrowed his brows in a grimace. Tony Stark calling him _Mr. Parker_ would be embarrassing in so many levels he didn’t even want to start thinking about it. Tony’s smirk widened.

“Relax kiddo, I don’t bite. And I don’t want you out, it’s just been a tough week,” he whispered, and started walking again, his grip on Peter’s shoulder never faltering.

 _Tough week_ was such an understatement that Tony didn’t know how he managed not to laugh bitterly at his own words. 

On Tuesday Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were spotted in Amsterdam, and Interpol was on their tails this close to finally get them. Tony had felt guilty for making them criminals, then mad at himself for feeling guilty because it was their choice and he did gave him an olive branch before it was too late, then scared for the ones that after all were still his friends. He stared at his mobile phone Steve gave him waiting for a call that never came the whole day, itching to go help them but knowing deep down he wouldn’t be welcome.

On Thursday Pepper and him have had a huge fight, once she found out about his new nanotechnology project. She told him she would never marry him if he kept _playing this hero complex bullshit_ and then she left home, and never came back if not for business meetings, giving him the cold shoulder and leaving him for what it looked was for the better this time. 

The night before, his second night alone without her, he had dreamt of New York for the first time in months and for the first time alone ever, and that same morning he saw an article about _Obadiah Stane_ and had a really bad panic attack. Once it passed he made himself another coffee and just waited for the kid to come.

Tony Stark didn’t just have a tough week, he just had one of the worst weeks of his life. But he couldn’t cancel on Peter. He couldn’t cancel on Peter because he needed to check his suit more than the kid needed it himself, because after what happened to Toomes he swore on anything he loved the most that the kid was not going to get hurt on him _ever_ again, because he didn’t want the kid to feel left out and, if he had to be honest with himself, because he enjoyed being with him. The kid was kind, smart, down to earth, ridiculously talented and looked at him like he hung the moon, something that even the people that believed on him the most, Rhodey, Happy, – _Pepper_ , a voice whispered in his mind – now seemed to do less and less any passing day. 

_This cannot end well,_ he thought, _if you keep doing this you’re going to get attached and one more person you care about is one more person you are going to lose._

Tony almost wanted to laugh at that. There was no way he was going to get attached to the kid, not more than he already was, because he started to get attached so long ago he didn’t even remember when. Peter was just too good not to.

“Do you know what I do when I have a bad day, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked, snapping him back to focus on his surroundings, when they passed the three inches thick iron doors that lead to the lab. 

“What, _Mr. Parker_?” he retorted, smiling as the kid frowned. He didn’t think a sixteen year old could ever suggest an effective way to feel better, not for the horrid things that kept happening to him lately, but he asked anyway, because he remembered how it felt having sixteen, he remembered how it felt when you only wanted someone to listen and care and treat you like someone whose opinion really mattered.

“I watch a movie,” he said with a grin, the _Mr. Parker_ issue already forgotten. “I think you know it, it’s kinda old… I mean, I’m not implying you’re old… not that you’re actually young…” he rambled, and Tony took pity on him.

“Hey, hey, easy tiger. I don’t like where this is going!” he joked, and the kid smiled, and Tony thought that he already succeeded on making him feel better so he really should give him a chance. “I don’t actually have times for movies, kid. It’s been ages since the last time I actually watched one!”

“Just trust me… _Tony._ ” he said, then twitched his lips like he was trying to taste the word in his mouth. “This movie is a life saver. It’s a miracle! It’s called _Star Wars: a New Hope._ There are lightsabers, and spaceships, and explosions! And it really gives hope. It does.”

“I’ll try to find some time, but I can’t make promises,” he said, trying not to make his smirk turn into a fond smile. He had a reputation to keep. “Now now, let’s see this strap.”

They worked on the suit. They talked. They had lunch. They worked more. Then Happy came and brought the kid back home. 

Tony read his emails and answered to some of them. He asked FRIDAY if Pepper called, and got a negative answer. He checked the phone Steve gave him and found nothing. He ignored a text from Rhodey that asked him if he was okay and if Pepper called. 

“FRIDAY?” he asked, to the empty walls. 

“Yes sir?”

“Order some pizza and put _A New Hope_ on the bedroom’s TV. We’re watching _Star Wars_ tonight.

That night Tony Stark watched Star Wars for the first time because Peter Parker suggested him to. He didn’t know if it was because the kid always managed to make him feel better, or of it really was the movie, but it actually worked.

_04/24/2023_

_Upstate, NY_

_5.20 P.M._

Morgan knew what to do, she always did. When those mean people finally left their home, her father looked upset like he never looked before. The man tried to hide it of course, but she noticed anyway. 

As soon as the mean people left, her mother left as well, now that she didn’t have to protect daddy anymore. She always left for work, most of the time it was Morgan and her dad alone. Mommy worked a lot. 

When she left, she asked Morgan to keep an eye on her father and she had full intentions to keep her promise.

Dad played with her with Legos, building an elephant, a train, and Disneyworld’s castle, even if the elephant Morgan built looked more like a grey hat, the train Tony built looked more like a spaceship with heels and the castle had been built by Dum-E and that was a little unfair.

When they finished she busied herself with a colouring book about dinosaurs, but kept an eye on the man anyway, and noticed he was going in and out of the kitchen in a sour mood, like he kept forgetting what he wanted to do there or like he couldn’t bring himself to do something.

 _Maybe he’s hungry,_ she thought, even if he never really walked towards the fridge. He went all the way to the shelf where they kept the family photos and then came back. It wasn’t the first time it happened, Tony frequently wandered around the shelf and then came back with a weird expression on his face, and she often wondered why he didn’t just throw them all away.

 _Grownups are so dumb sometimes,_ she told herself, then she trotted where they kept the bluerays and started rummaging, throwing some of them on the floor while looking for one in particular. 

And there it was. She didn’t know how to read yet, but she remembered the yellow sign and the night’s sky on the cover, it couldn’t be mistaken.

She grabbed the one she was looking for and put all the others back in, because mommy would get mad otherwise – daddy was far more understanding on the matter – and then put the disc on the small table with the TV. That movie always made her bored, and she didn’t understand it well, but it always made daddy happy so it was okay.

She started waiting, back to her colouring book, a gift from uncle Rhodey she had always loved. 

When Tony finally woke up he still felt the very same weight on his chest and sighed loudly. He stared at the ceiling, waiting for he didn’t know what, with his heart small and heavy.

_I got my second chance right here, Cap._

And it was true. It _was_ true. He loved his second chance, more than anything in the whole world, and he wouldn’t trade it with anything else. 

But every time he blinked or worse, he closed his eyes, he saw his face. He couldn’t bear it today, maybe he never did, but today it was just worse, because today it felt more like it was his fault.

_Mr Stark? What’s happening?_

He was terrified he could lose Morgan if he did this. He couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t. But he wanted him back. And he would do anything to finally have him again, except maybe this. Or maybe not. Because he was seriously considering this, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself, he was. 

He heard something shift close to him and flinched. Morgan was looking up from his colouring book, the one Rhodey gave to her for her birthday. 

_Here, take this. You know dinosaurs, right? With this you could educate yourself, unlike that dumb father of yours._

The word _dumb_ had made her laugh and there was only one other laugh that could make Tony feel like that. 

He looked at her and smiled. That little kid really was the best thing that ever happened to him.

“Hey, _principessa_. How’s the stegosaurus?”

“Hi dad. Wanna watch this?” she asked, gesturing towards the TV, and when he saw what was on it he froze.

Since the very first time Peter suggested that to him, he kept watching the movie every time he felt overwhelmed, and every time it worked. Before Thanos and even after. Especially after. 

He didn’t know Morgan could connect the dots, but apparently the little thing was smart like her mother, so of course she did.

“Oh _tesoro_ , I don’t know if I can. Not today,” he said, with more honesty than he probably should have.

“Please…” she pushed, with a pout forming on her lips. “For me?”

Tony sighed and sat up. “Fine. But you’re sitting here next to me the whole time, right?”

The girl smiled, then nodded. 

They watched the whole movie without a word, and when it ended, Tony went back to the shelf and took the framed photo in his hands.

He had work to do.

  
  
  
  


_04/28/2023_

_Upstate, NY_

_11.15 A.M._

The funeral was finally over. Happy was checking some papers with Colonel Rhodes, and what was left of the Avengers had already left. May just said goodbye to everyone, asking him if he wanted to go with her, but then Happy offered to take him home later and he couldn’t bring himself to leave just yet. Even the boy, Harley, that awkwardly started a conversation with him left. He looked like a cool kid. 

Any other occasion, and he would have felt the luckiest guy in the world. He talked with doctor Banner, his favourite scientist; he saw _Thor_ , his major childhood crush – he looked thinner on TV–; he had been hugged by Pepper Pots, the most gorgeous woman in the world.

Yet he felt like shit, he didn’t even have more tears to cry with, everything he could think about was that last hug, the relief on his face when he saw him coming out the portal, the way he looked up to him and called him just before – just before – 

His thought always stopped there.

He knocked softly on the entrance’s door, under the porch, then pushed it open silently. 

“Miss Potts?” he called, then, “Mrs. Stark?” he corrected himself, one of the many things he missed during the blip. He hated himself for it. “Do you need help?”

Nobody answered his call and guessed that Pepper now probably wanted to be left alone. He regretted staying, he had no right to be there, this was Tony’s family and he was intruding today out of all days. It was very selfish of him and he knew it, but May was in a rush, and Happy offered, how could he say no? He didn’t want to leave. This was the last time he could be at Tony’s and it wasn’t ready for it to be over.

Then he heard a sniff.

He followed the noise and found himself in what it looked like the living room. 

There she was, the kid, Tony’s kid. He learned who she was only that morning, but he found out that her existence didn’t surprise him at all. It only made what happened look worse.

She was sitting down, hugging her legs, her head on her knees. He approached her slowly and looked at what she was watching on TV. As soon as he saw the suns sat on Tattooine, the soundtrack filling the room, something in him cringed, and he found his eyes wet yet again.

“This is my favourite movie,” he whispered, announcing his presence, his voice broken. 

The child didn’t say anything, didn’t even flinch, and didn’t acknowledge him or what he just said in any way. 

Peter sat on the couch next to her silently and she let him. 

After a few minutes, she said “I know you. You’re the boy that’s in the framed photo on the shelf.”

Peter blinked in surprise, a few drops running down his heated cheeks. The photo she was referring to had to be the one from when he joined Stark Industries with a real internship, something Tony apparently was very proud of, and that used to fluster Peter every time he thought about it. He couldn’t believe Tony had kept something like that for five whole years. He couldn’t believe he still remembered him after all this time. 

“Aren’t you too young to watch a movie like this?” he asked, trying not to think about the fact that Tony was never going to look at that picture of him ever again. 

Morgan shrugged. “Dad always watches this movie when he’s upset. He says there are lightsabers, and spaceships, and explosions, and that it really gives hope,” she said. “I don’t like it a lot, but I thought maybe it could make me feel better too.”

Peter swallowed every word the child just said like bad medicine. He didn’t want to sob in front of a four year old kid that just lost her father, so he forced back the burning lump in his throat. 

_Of course he said that,_ he thought, _it’s the same thing I told him last year. Six years ago._

“Can I stay here and watch the movie with you?” he asked once he was sure he wasn’t going to start crying as soon as he opened his mouth again.

“Of course you can,” Morgan whispered, hiding his face deeper behind her knees.

They didn’t say a word more, but when the credits popped up and the movie was finally over, they were already close. 

**Author's Note:**

> The words Tony uses to call Peter and Morgan in the fic are “piccolo”, little one; “ragazzo mio”, my boy; “principessa”, princess and “tesoro”, sweetheart. “Sul serio” means really, seriously.
> 
> Pro tip: please do not use “bambino” as kid if you want Tony to talk in Italian in your fic. Nobody does that, it's not a pet name, it's kinda weird. You can use "bimbo", that's the equivalent of "bambino" but as a pet name, even if it's more like the English "baby" than "kid". I think the most correct version of kid is "ragazzino". But "bimbo" would be okay too, certainly more okay than "bambino" that's literally child in a very formal way.


End file.
